Description

Nyami Nyami - Clash of the River Gods

Doug Armstrong

Though the border war has ended and South Africa has embraced a new democratic government, society remains divided, albeit with a new-look elite. There are still the haves and the have-nots. Those fortunate enough to live in tree-lined suburbs seldom witness the darker side of life or realise how quickly their relative paradise can turn to purgatory if they accidentally cross the line.

Such is the fate of two hapless families, emerging as new South Africans, trying to leave their past behind and brimming with hope for the rainbow nation. Fate thrusts them into a cauldron of terror, from which they can rely only on their own courage and friendships to survive.

Nyami Nyami: Clash of the River Gods begins in a dive resort in the tranquil south of Mozambique post-1994, and races through the heartland of the country, to its northeastern extremities and beyond into the untamed wilderness and the little-known dark depths of the lower reaches of the mighty Zambezi River. This region, steeped in culture and tradition, is governed by brutality and superstition. Against this backdrop, our two traumatised families desperately fight to free their kidnapped children from some of the continent's most savage and wanted bandits, all while coming to terms with their own pasts and prejudices, and the laws of survival in the realm of Nyami Nyami and the spirit gods of the river.